La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton earlier this year unveiled the impressive Louis Vuitton Tambour Jacquemart Minute Repeater 200th Anniversary, a white gold and titanium-cased minute repeater with an astral-themed dial Louis Vuitton says is meant to mimic “a porthole opening onto an endless galaxy.”
In that dial-borne galaxy you’ll find an unusual space capsule automaton mechanism endowed with a cathedral gong minute repeater.
Within the watch’s 46.8 mm by 15.2mm titanium case (with white gold lugs and bezel) Louis Vuitton places nine gold automatons (known historically as jacquemarts, characters devised to strike gongs on church bells). 
When the wearer presses the slide, the rocket takes off to expose diamond ‘passengers’ in its cockpit. At the same time, the planets on the dial spin while the Louis Vuitton Monogram flower rotates and two stars shoot across the blue void. Even the case itself is finished with the celestial theme as its design is meant to echo the shape of an astronaut’s helmet.
As this astral show unfolds, a cathedral gong minute repeater chimes the hours, quarter hours and minutes. 
La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton spent two years developing this unique piece as a tribute to the 200th birthday of Louis Vuitton. The watchmaker enlisted the creativity of engraver Dick Steenman and enameler Anita Porchet to decorate the the case and to craft the dial elements.
You might recall that Steenman and Porchet also collaborated on the Louis Vuitton Tambour Carpe Diem, an earlier automaton unique piece, which won the Audacity prize at the 2021 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).
Look closely at the dial at 7 o’clock on this new watch and you’ll see Ms. Porchet’s signature.
On the bezel, the Louis Vuitton signature is encrusted in blue rubber letters. The pusher, crown and the LV initials are set with a gradation of tourmalines and sapphires to match the deep blue dial.
From the back of the case, a sapphire crystal allows a peek at the LV200 caliber, a hand-wound movement with 480 components, several of which have been finished in a celestial blue hue.
The watch nicely blends traditional high-end watchmaking and gem-setting techniques with a contemporary, space-themed design. Its unique character again demonstrates how La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton has successfully marked its own path among its peers within traditional high-end Swiss watchmaking.
Hublot has placed minute repeating movements into numerous watches in the past, sometimes also paired with a tourbillon. You might recall that in 2014, Hublot received a Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) for its Classic Fusion Cathedral Tourbillon Minute Repeater.
